What's going on with cheese?

[ilovebagpuss]

So sorry, to ask such a dull question but I can't take it anymore. Why is all cheddar suddenly disgusting slimy blocks of plastic cheese? OK I'm not talking M&S but Sainsburys, Aldi and Lidl "extra mature" is all disgusting.
I've spent about 3/4 quid on a block and it's too foul to eat. It's not off or mouldy its just non tasting rubber.
Can anyone explain why this is? Shortage of something ?

probably because the cows had different feed this summer due to the droughts everywhere.

Even the vintage cheddar we buy from Waitrose is saltier and a different texture. I assumed they had cut corners due to their production costs.

Yes, cheddar cheese is definitely sweaty now. I put it down to post Brexit food regulations and shortages in the UK.

I can report from France that here, cheese is not sweaty and is cheesey.

There's a lot of us veggies out here still who are very grateful for cheese with vegetarian rennet, but that change for cheddar happened a long time ago. I remember 30 years ago it was an issue but not so much for the last 20 years. And veggie rennet is grown in labs I understand so I don't think that would have changed.

I buy Tesco organic cheddar and had some in cheese sauce at the weekend in cauliflower cheese. It melted fine, and tasted nice, but it is more expensive so I'm using less of it (which is no bad thing given my previous cheese habit).

Maybe the cows were not fed enough grass this summer and were fed something lower quality as someone suggested.

I don't know much about cheesemaking other than what I think I have learned from The Archers but I thought mature cheese needed a time to, ah, mature, so wouldn't have been made with milk from this summer. Given people are talking about this problem starting months ago, even if I'm wrong, it sounds like the problem goes further back.

Am I wrong in thinking most dairy herds in this country still spend a fair amount of time outside eating grass? I hope we're not moving to the North American model of having herds living indoors in huge sheds fed on goodness knows what.

Davidstow Extra Mature is very good 👍 There’s a Canadian Mature that Tesco sometimes do that is nice too, and their Finest is ok. I avoid most of the cheddars as they’re slimy, rubbery and tasteless, so I always choose Davidstow or one of my back-ups and then there’s no problem. Tastes great, melts well, good texture.

I like the enormous cheap block of Asda mature tbh.

The M&S cornish cruncher in black wrapping is still OK, I hope? Haven't bought it for a while. Now I think about it, that's the only UK cheese I do buy occasionally, I find it all pretty tasteless. My regulars are parmesan, taleggio, gorgonzola.

Waitrose extra mature number 6 is fantastic. Best on the market and not at all plasticky

Parmesan still seems fine. I find a little of that goes a very long way as it is such a strong flavour.

After some extensive googling, I think it's probably young cheddar not given any time to age. So although it says extra mature, it is not aged as such.
There may well be other fats added but I can't find an ingredients list for the cheese I have bought anywhere.
So possibly the cheese shortage has lead to suppliers producing this quick turn around product to fill shelves?

It might help to take cheese out of the plastic wrap and wrap it in greaseproof paper instead? It can get a bit slimy kept in plastic in the fridge.

Supermarket Earl Grey seems to only contain flavouring now and tastes of nothing. I buy English Teashop teabags with real bergamot oil, it has a lovely flavour.

It may seem that there are more vegans than vegetarians, but googling suggests otherwise.
The Vegetarian society annoyingly doesn't provide figures.
A reasonable estimate seems to be 5% vegetarian 2% vegan.

I thought it was just me.

@Inmyhandbagand @CheesyBeans1 my Earl Grey of choice has for years been M&S loose leaf. To my taste it beats all of the others apart from high end speciality Earl Greys.

Not just supermarket Earl Grey, I bought some from Fortnum's, hunting flavour, as all the others were tasteless, and was bitterly disappointed. Made me very cross.

@Pixiedust1234 I'm not the OP you were questioning but yes if anyone wants to sell in the Irish market they need to satisfy EU regulations, so even if rules had changed in the UK that wouldn't explain why our cheese has gone to pot too!

Aldi cheese here is made with Irish milk and sounds like it's just as rubbery and tasteless as the UK equivalent. And it's not just the international brands, lots of our local Irish cheddars taste the same. I've a gorgeous cheese shop nearby so must go and buy some of the fancy stuff for research purposes - this needs to be sorted before Christmas / Cheesemas!

I doubt it's this as I have the same issue on the other side of the world.

We mostly get our cheese from m and s or the farm shop at the garden centre. Big slabs of ordinary cheddar are cut into chunks for the dogs here. It's gone very expensive yet tastes cheaper.

I bought some mature cheddar from Co-Op last week and it bent when I tried to grate it. Never had that before!

Buy the wexford extar mature or vintage, its often on offer in Tesco, and it's really really good. The Aldi vintage used to be great but has gone awful now.

@isthismylifenow

Cheese matters

A worthy campaign motto if I ever saw one. Still time to throw your hat into the running for PM today.

I remember reading something a while ago, about how most "mature cheese" wasn't actually aged, but had a mature cheese flavour added. The Tesco value type cheddar has always been a bit rubbery, so maybe they're using that type of cheese and just flavouring it with the mature taste rather than actually maturing the cheddar as it should be, for the more expensive makes as well as the value ones now?